Our SWFs juz lost S’pore S$685million

Mapletree Industrial Trust was up 25% from its issue price on its first day of trading while GLP (Global Logistic Properties) was up 11% on the first day of trading last monday.

For MIT, this meant that Temasek could have gotten S$300m more and GIC S$385m more for the GLP shares it sold. Not peanuts.

What this means is that the IPOs were priced badly. Ideally an IPO should open at a modest premium from the issue price. 5% would be fair.The investors make a modest profit, while the issuers get a gd price. So my S$685 is an exaggeration, the loss should be S$651m.

Now investment banks will always try to underprice issues because they want happy investors and don’t want to be stuck with unsold shares. Usually they get away with underpricing because issuers don’t know the intricacies of corporate finance. But Temasek and GIC are full of financial whiz-kids, or sure so we are assured.

But then maybe they gave away such a big discount because the money wasn’t theirs?

“It wasn’t that hard for me, just so you know. I made the decision to use your money to prevent the collapse from happening.”

– President George W. Bush, speaking at the University of Texas at Tyler on Tuesday night, via the On the Money blog of The Hill.

If Siew Kum Hong had been been an NMP, I’m sure a parly question would have been asked. But the people-in-blue, “My wife is entitled to my seat” man and the NMPS are likely to remain silent. Our only hope is for one of the whites to ask the question.